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Page 407
Ian. Few were willing to speak to the king's half brother of any plot, but when their minds had been set to rest with assurances and after all tales were traced back to the source, it was to this same Sir Guy. He seemed to have spread the tales of knights-errant hired to kill. And when the tales of poor knights with money to spend were also followed to their source, it was clear that the money was Sir Guy's. A return to Sir Guy's five companions produced nothing. They did not know the man, except for having joined him for the stated purpose. They certainly had no money, above the bare minimum they needed to live, and they had received none, nor any offer of money, from Sir Guy. It was true Sir Guy had spoken of the rumored plot with them, but as a rumor, not as if he knew any more than they did. To them he had shown no riches. His lodgings were as poor as theirs; his horse and armor no better. Salisbury was at a standstill. There might be thousands of Sir Guys in the country, and very likely Guy was not the man's name at all.
Of the men of note Salisbury questioned, none except the principals had seen anything. All had been busy with their own duels. The only item that raised any suspicion in Salisbury was the eagerness with which Cantelu and Cornhill, FitzWalter and de Quincy all accepted the version of the story offered by Sir Robert and his companions. Since the suspicion raised was not one Salisbury was willing to entertain, he did not pursue the matter. Leicester was as little help. When pressed for an opinion, he laughed consumedly but said, between the gusts, that, if he were Salisbury, he would accept Sir Robert's story and be done with it. If one turned enough rocks, he remarked enigmatically but suggestively, with a raised brow and a cynical twist to his lips, one was sure to find slimy worms.
On the third day, Salisbury came to put what evidence he had uncovered before Ian. He found him still abed, with blue marks under his eyes that spoke clearly of

 
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